The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for filling containers wherein a flowable semi-solid material such as ice cream, sherbet or the like is discharged in generally continuous fashion through a downwardly opening nozzle into a container, and the container, when filled, is moved crosswise of the nozzle to shear the material in the container from the stream in the nozzle. Examples of such filling apparatus are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,612,016; 3,124,916; 3,172,435 and 3,364,651. Such filling apparatus use the container to measure the volume of material. However, this shearing action as the containers move crosswise of a nozzle tends to draw material away from the side of the container that leads during such movement and produce a material void in the container. When filling relatively flexible wall containers such as the rectangular paperboard containers shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,612,016; 3,172,435 and 3,364,651, the container walls tend to bulge due to the product pressure and, during enfolding of the container flaps to close the carton, the carton tends to become more square and displace material into the product void. However, relatively rigid wall containers such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,124,196, do not bulge during filling and eliminating the void at the top of the container has presented a continuing problem. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,124,916, the container is moved horizontally across the lower end of the nozzle and this produced an upper product line having a void at the lead side of the container and a bulge of material at the trail side of the container. U.S. Pat. No. 3,124,916 proposed to solve this problem by turning the container as it was moved from the filling station to a capping station so that the bulge of material would be at the lead side of the container and the cover would engage the bulge of material and press the same back into the container. While this tended to compensate for the void in the container, it frequently resulted in the discharge of some of the bulge of material over the side of the container, which discharged material not only resulted in an undesirable loss of product but also contaminated and defaced the outside of the container.